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It's unfortunate and I sympathize with the author. But that said most of, if not all, the lessons-learned points he makes could have been potentially avoided if

It's unfortunate and I sympathize with the author. But that said most of, if not all, the lessons-learned points he makes could have been potentially avoided if he had just spent some time reading even one or two startup-how-to books. There are hundreds of those now. There are many many founders who have been through the exact same situation in almost exactly the same fashion. And they have shared their experiences. So why not read up or ask advice from them before jumping head first? It doesn't take long; 2-3 weeks tops. This is my advice to future entrepreneurs -- read on a variety of topics before you jump in head first. No matter what your idea is or area of expertise gain some understanding of at least some areas of running a business including but not limited to marketing, sales, technology, finance, incorporation, financing, growth, hiring practices, legal, equity, etc. etc..

metalmanac 9y ago
It's almost as if lessons in building a startup are more often than not, learned the hard way. Even people who have read blog posts and how-to books fail to recognise when the lessons/advice they are reading are applicable to them.
nostrademons 9y ago
The problem is that most startup books tell you what not to do, not what to do. Actually finding an underserved market that can be serviced by something a founding team can build is a bit of a black art. Anyone who finds one is busy building that startup, because the financial returns of actually serving the niche are so much better than that of telling someone else about the niche. Before anyone mentions Lean Startup or Startup Owner's Manual - I've read them, lent them to friends, actually put them into practice, and that startup (startups, actually) still failed. And I've got a half dozen or so friends and acquaintances who have done it too, and their startups all failed too. The advantage of that methodology is that you fail fast, oftentimes before you quit your day job, but if founding a startup is something you really want to do, knowing a few dozen ideas that aren't viable businesses is only marginally useful.
- skynode 9y ago
  > The problem is that most startup books tell you what not to do, not what to do. This is actually better. Because it means that the authors have had their failures (hopefully?) and are telling a practical story. It's subtractive but it works, re. Ten Commandments, via Negativa style. It's actually much worse to tell somebody who'll probably be halfway across reading your book to jump x metres when the wind speed is just under y mph to achieve some z business effect. Point is your context may not be somebody else's context, so it's much better to harp on universal principles which you violated in business than to show us a sequence of events which leave out the role of timing, chance and other unknown unknowns.
- sverhagen 9y ago
  It seems you're confusing what's undoubtedly an art, to come up with a good idea, with the mechanics of being a startup, the latter being a more-repeatable motion, that is well-described in the literature that I believe people here are referring to. Of course there's also plenty of testimony on what were bad startup ideas, but obviously it'll be up to the entrepreneurs in question to come up with their own brilliant startup ideas.
dyim 9y ago
Agreed, 100%. My co-founder and I read all of Paul Graham's essays before starting our current company [1], and it really helped us get a good intuition for the kind of work that gets you closer to product-market fit. (Good work: direct sales, building MVPs. "Play" work: branding, getting coffee with people outside your industry, spending time on HN.) It took us 5 pivots and a year before we saw any meaningful revenue, and it would've probably taken us three times as long w/o those essays. Three pieces of "book knowledge" really helped in making hard decisions on the journey so far: 1) As an entrepreneur, you have the ability to make excuses and, say, welch on a sales call. ("I am not feeling well; I had better sleep in.") You can exercise free will in this manner, but doing so is a complete moral failing. (Steli Efti) 2) Never buy risk unless you're being adequately compensated. Before you have product-market fit, the riskiest thing to do is to work on a project with a long feedback loop. Structure your projects so that you can learn if it's working or not ASAP. (Alfred Sloan) 3) Keep track of your runway, and don't forget to exercise :) (PG) [1] We read them because they were super fun to read - it didn't feel like homework or due diligence! PG's Twitter is also wonderful.

metalmanac 9y ago

It's almost as if lessons in building a startup are more often than not, learned the hard way. Even people who have read blog posts and how-to books fail to recognise when the lessons/advice they are reading are applicable to them.

nostrademons 9y ago

The problem is that most startup books tell you what not to do, not what to do. Actually finding an underserved market that can be serviced by something a founding team can build is a bit of a black art. Anyone who finds one is busy building that startup, because the financial returns of actually serving the niche are so much better than that of telling someone else about the niche. Before anyone mentions Lean Startup or Startup Owner's Manual - I've read them, lent them to friends, actually put them into practice, and that startup (startups, actually) still failed. And I've got a half dozen or so friends and acquaintances who have done it too, and their startups all failed too. The advantage of that methodology is that you fail fast, oftentimes before you quit your day job, but if founding a startup is something you really want to do, knowing a few dozen ideas that aren't viable businesses is only marginally useful.

skynode 9y ago
> The problem is that most startup books tell you what not to do, not what to do. This is actually better. Because it means that the authors have had their failures (hopefully?) and are telling a practical story. It's subtractive but it works, re. Ten Commandments, via Negativa style. It's actually much worse to tell somebody who'll probably be halfway across reading your book to jump x metres when the wind speed is just under y mph to achieve some z business effect. Point is your context may not be somebody else's context, so it's much better to harp on universal principles which you violated in business than to show us a sequence of events which leave out the role of timing, chance and other unknown unknowns.
sverhagen 9y ago
It seems you're confusing what's undoubtedly an art, to come up with a good idea, with the mechanics of being a startup, the latter being a more-repeatable motion, that is well-described in the literature that I believe people here are referring to. Of course there's also plenty of testimony on what were bad startup ideas, but obviously it'll be up to the entrepreneurs in question to come up with their own brilliant startup ideas.

dyim 9y ago

Agreed, 100%. My co-founder and I read all of Paul Graham's essays before starting our current company [1], and it really helped us get a good intuition for the kind of work that gets you closer to product-market fit. (Good work: direct sales, building MVPs. "Play" work: branding, getting coffee with people outside your industry, spending time on HN.) It took us 5 pivots and a year before we saw any meaningful revenue, and it would've probably taken us three times as long w/o those essays. Three pieces of "book knowledge" really helped in making hard decisions on the journey so far: 1) As an entrepreneur, you have the ability to make excuses and, say, welch on a sales call. ("I am not feeling well; I had better sleep in.") You can exercise free will in this manner, but doing so is a complete moral failing. (Steli Efti) 2) Never buy risk unless you're being adequately compensated. Before you have product-market fit, the riskiest thing to do is to work on a project with a long feedback loop. Structure your projects so that you can learn if it's working or not ASAP. (Alfred Sloan) 3) Keep track of your runway, and don't forget to exercise :) (PG) [1] We read them because they were super fun to read - it didn't feel like homework or due diligence! PG's Twitter is also wonderful.